Sunday, Fowler and McIlroy form the final pair of players teeing off at Royal Liverpool. They will be announced at 9:40 a.m. ET, 10 minutes after Johnson and Spain's Sergio Garcia.

McIlroy avoided his biggest bugaboo Friday with his second consecutive round of 66. With a fast finish and a 68 on Saturday, he will go off six strokes ahead of Fowler and seven ahead of Johnson and Garcia.

British oddsmaker now have McIlroy at 10-to-1 to complete his third major victory. And he showed something observers were waiting to see: maturity.

"I felt like today my patience was rewarded," McIlroy said after the round. "I didn't get off to the best of starts again. I had a few chances around the turn to maybe make birdies, and I wasn't able to do that.

"The finish speaks for itself. I was sort of waiting for those two holes. I felt like I was driving the ball well, and if I could drive it on the fairway on 16 and 18, I knew that I would have irons into the greens for my second shots.

"To be able to make two threes there coming in was very important, and obviously sets me up nicely for tomorrow.

"This is the third night in a row that I'll sleep on the lead, so I'm comfortable. It helps that I've been in this position before and have been able to convert."

If McIlroy has one more solid round, everyone else will be playing for second place.

Tiger Woods is scheduled to begin play at Hoylake, England, at 4:45 a.m. ET, in an anticlimax.